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Wayne Rooney has shown lack of respect for Gareth Southgate and should face England axe!

All the stories of Wayne Rooney having a drink till 5am on Sunday morning and others supposedly going to a nightclub are out of order. They have to be more disciplined than that.

I’m sure Gareth Southgate won’t be happy about it. England had a game against Spain on Tuesday night to prepare for and it should have been their only focus.

Sure, they had been given some free time to relax and unwind a little bit. But that doesn’t mean players should be up until 5am boozing.

People have to realise that it doesn’t take a day to get out of your system, it takes a week.

Besides, what message does Rooney’s actions send out to the public? To the people in thehotel where the team were staying? He was wearing England gear as well. It’s completely wrong.

Some may say Gareth is in an awkward position, given he is just the interim manager and has yet to be given the position permanently.

But it doesn’t matter if you’re in charge for one game or for several years, don’t let your players have a drink. You don’t even let them have one or two.

When you’re around footballers, you get to understand one thing: if you let them have one or two, it doesn’t stop there. One or two goes to three or four, five to six, six to eight.

You tell the players: “Sorry lads, we are not here to drink. You’re here to play for England. Have a cup of tea, have your dinner, go to bed.”

When I was manager at West Ham, I put a stop to them drinking in the players’ bar after the game.

They’d go in at 5.15pm, their mates would be in there and they’d all get on the booze. Then they’d come out of the ground all boozed up with kids waiting for autographs — that’s not right.

I hated Christmas parties at the clubs I managed and tried to stop them, too. I remember when I was at Tottenham, several members of the squad went out to Dublin to have one without my knowledge. It made the headlines and I wasn’t happy at all. I made it clear that Christmas parties were banned.

I hope Gareth has done something about it. If he has just let it go then the players will take liberties and walk all over him.

I have seen the Football Association say they’re going to review the policy of what happens when England players are given some time off while still on duty but it is the manager who walks into the dressing room.

It is not as if the England team have had a lot of success in recent times and reason to celebrate with a drink, anyway.

These players are getting thousands of pounds a week — why do they have to drink? Can’t they look after themselves for 10-12 years?

You don’t see that with the Italian national team, do you? Or with the Germans. It shows a lack of respect for the manager.

You can’t keep protecting players, that’s all we seem to do. Gareth has got to come out and say, ‘They took a right liberty with me there’.

Gareth will be sick as a pig with that, whether he says it or not. If he says he’s not, I don’t believe him. There is already a lot of negative attention over Rooney’s form, now there is this, too. Rooney doesn’t need that and neither does the manager.

Why do you have to stay up till 5am in the middle of the season? You’re away on international duty.

Players are sent away by their clubs and they expect them to come back fit to play in the next League game, which for Rooney is Manchester United v Arsenal. A huge encounter. He hasn’t done himself any favours at all.

I’d still keep him around the England squad but he can’t behave like that. Gareth has to tell him that if he does it again, ‘That’s your lot’. It’s just not the way to behave while on England duty.

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